Secrets of the Past
by Pabelara
Summary: "What just happened?" Amy stammered. "Well, if I'm not mistaken and I believe I'm not we were almost run over by that rude gentleman and his rudimentary method of transportation," Ian replied. "Ok and where would you say we are again? Cause if you've redecorated all I can say is that I liked your garden better before, but since I doubt that's the case…" "I have no idea."
1. Chapter 1

"Get back!"

He pulled her away and pushed her to the ground, landing on top of her.

"Lovely," he said. She looked into his beautiful amber eyes and blushed, "Y-y-you don't have to do that," she whispered.

"Do what?" he asked.

"Be sarcastic. Say things like lovely. You saved my life. Th-thank you."

"My duty," Ian Kabra replied as he brushed his lips against hers.

A harsh alarm broke the dream, followed by an annoying "Amy! Get your butt downstairs already! I'm hungry!" Grumbling, Amy Cahill got up and dragged herself to the bathroom. She stood in front of the mirror and stared at her crappy appearance; with a sigh she slipped into the shower and as the warm water caressed her body, she felt the remains of last night's dream dissipate down the drain.

Fifteen minutes later she walked into the kitchen where 13 year old Dan sat at the kitchen table holding his knife and fork like Wile E. Coyote. "Finally! I'm starving! You kitchen me eat pancakes now!"

She raised her eyebrows, "I'm sorry? I don't think I understood, you know I don't speak **dweeb**. Now get outta here and let me work! Uhhh!"

Dan scooted out of the kitchen, probably to watch TV as Amy started making breakfast. Making breakfast had become part of her daily routine just as much as making lunch and dinner as they'd discovered early on that Uncle Fiske's cooking left a lot to desire since he'd spent most of his life eating at restaurants or heating things up in the microwave. Amy had always liked cooking so she'd quickly volunteered to cook and had had Nelly teach her a few things; the rest as they say is history.

Two hours later, she curled up in bed with a mug of Grace's special hot chocolate and a good book. She sighed content as she got ready for a peaceful Sunday winter morning; just as she was about to open the book she frowned knowing that there was something missing. Right on cue, Saladin bounded into her room and onto her bed purring; smiling Amy rubbed his belly and picked up her book again, ready to delve into its unsolved mysteries. It wasn't meant to be.

CRASH!

She jumped out of bed and ran out of her room. Leaning over the banister she saw the crime that had taken place: Dan, Atticus Rosenbloom and the remains of a beautiful Chinese Qing dynasty vase.

"DANIEL ARTHUR CAHILL! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?"

"Uh, hey sis," Dan said sheepishly, "We're just um doing spring cleaning!" he finished brightly.

"Bad move," Atticus muttered to him as Amy's eyes narrowed, her shoulders stiffened and she seemed to increase in height. The boys shrank away from her anger but at the last second she seemed to calm down.

"Brother dearest."

"Oh boy, we're doomed," Dan whispered to Atticus who nodded wide eyed.

"Do you understand what you just did?" she asked sweetly.

"Uh, we broke a very pretty Wing dynasty..."

"Qing" Atticus muttered.

"Shut up," he hissed. "Qing dynasty vase"

Amy nodded, "And do you know how rare, expensive and hard to get those vases are, Daniel dear?"

"Uh, I take it you can't buy at Wal-Mart."

"NO YOU CAN'T BUY IT AT WALMART YOU IDIOT! THAT WAS ONE OF THE REMAINING ARTIFACTS OF A DEAD DYNASTY OF ONE OF THE MOST CULTURALY RICH COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD! AND YOU, YOU DECIDE TO THROW IT AROUND LIKE A PIECE OF CHEAP PLASTIC!? YOU ARE SO DEAD!"

The boys gulped as she descended the staircase like a goddess of fury and revenge. But mercy seemed to be on the boys' side as Fiske Cahill walked out of his office, clearly annoyed by all the yelling, "What is going on?!"

"Oh, I don't know," Amy replied with a sweetly sarcastic voice as the boys quickly took refuge behind a bewildered Fiske. "I'm just kind of angry because my little brother and his little friend decided to start tossing a Qing dynasty vase across the living room with THAT as a result!" she snapped pointing at the remains of the vase.

Fiske turned around slowly and the boys gulped. "Boys, what is the meaning of this?" he asked calmly.

"We were doing spring cleaning?" Dan asked tentatively.

"It's not even spring yet!" Amy screamed at him still fuming.

"Amy, please," Fiske said calmly, "Perhaps it would be better if you went back up to your room and forgot about this incident. Atticus, please call your brother so he can come and pick him up and Dan…" he said turning around to face his nervous nephew, "I'd like you in my office please."

Dan glanced from Atticus who was wide eyed to a triumphant yet really pissed Amy to a stern Fiske and quickly hurried into Fiske's office. Amy turned on her heal and marched upstairs. "Now perhaps I'll be able to start that book," she muttered. Just as she sat down, she heard an explosion coming from Fiske's office and smiled. "Yep, I'll definitely be able to start now," she said cheerfully.

**Hey all!**

**So I really hope you guys liked the start, I really love this story and wanted to know what you guys thoguht of it. I've bee working on in for a year already so it's prretty exciting posting the first chapter here. Let me know what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

Dinner was rather silent as a now grounded Dan fumed in silence about the injustice of life and evil family members and Amy ate lost in thought planning her Christmas holidays. Taking a deep breath, Fiske cleared his voice, catching the attention of his niece and nephew.

"Well as you both well know, your Christmas holidays are about to start. Wednesday being the last day of classes, I believe?"

"Yeah! It's gonna be awesome, this Christmas!" Dan cried out, jumping up from his seat. "Atticus and I have this awesome plan for New Year's that's gonna rock the house!"

"First of all, please sit down," Fiske said with a sigh, "And second, you're going to have to cancel your New Year's plans."

"Why?" Amy asked.

"Well, it's been two years since the Clue Hunt and the official peace decisions between branches. However, a document stating that the Cahills are now at peace doesn't really do much and many are still hostile towards one another. We discussed the issue amongst the branch leaders and…"

"Wait a sec! You're saying that you managed to have a conversation with Ivan, Cora and the Kabras without killing each other?" Dan cried out in shock.

"Dan please, we're all adults…"

"The Kabras aren't!"

"Dan! As I was saying, we did manage to have a pleasant enough discussion and we decided that the best way to promote family cooperation is to have a family reunion where we all get to know each other…."

"Yeah right as if that'll happen!"

"So that people realize that we're not so different after all," Fiske continued raising his voice above his nephew's.

"And where will this be held?" Amy asked wearily.

""The Kabras agreed to host a New Year's Eve party, which was what I was trying to tell you: we'll be gone for New Year's. We leave December 28th and will be back the January 2nd."

Silence greeted his words followed by an upheaval of complaints and pleas to not go and pretend that they were terminally sick and just couldn't go.

"Enough! We will go and you will be civilized and polite to everyone, yes Dan even to the Kabras. Any questions? No? Good." Fiske stood up and walked into the kitchen where they could hear him clearing his late before coming back out and heading to his office. The siblings sat stunned; then Dan groaned and dropped his head on the table.

Monday morning came and the siblings seemed to have an unspoken agreement to not speak to Fiske. As they crossed the entrance hall to the door said uncle came out of his office and called them back, "Amy! Dan! Will you two stop for a moment and let me talk to you?" Amy glanced at her brother_, No _his eyes said. _He's a backstabbing, holiday runner, Kabra loving ninja torturer who does not deserve being talked to. Ninja torturer? _Amy raised her eyebrows. _Yes, you didn't hear how much he yelled at me over that Ying vase thingy. It was Qing Vase and yes I did hear him yelling, never mind you're right let's get out of here. _Fiske sighed as his niece and nephew walked out of the door and hopped into Amy's BMW convertible. "Teenagers," he muttered as he watched them leave.

40 minutes later, Amy strode into her class and plopped down onto her chair beside her two best friends with a frustrated sigh.

"Whoa, **someone** had a bad weekend."

"Luce," Jason said warningly, "You ok, Ames?" he asked his deep blue eyes full of concern.

She smiled and put her hand on her friend's, "I'm fine Jase, just pissed. My uncle has decided that we've got to go over to London this Christmas."

"Well that's cool!" Lucy said grinning happily, obviously not understanding why she was so angry.

Jase quickly got the gist of what she was pissed about, "London as in going to visit your cousins in London. Am I right?"

She nodded resignedly and Lucy's honey brown eyes widened as she realized the reason of her annoyance. "For how long?" she asked.

"Not much, from the 28th to the 2nd, but still it's spending New Year's Eve at a stupid formal party with people you either don't know or downright hate. There's only like eleven people I like there and I'm including Uncle Fiske, Dan and the family lawyer here, so yeah it's gonna be great," she stated.

"Think about it this way," Jase said kindly, "The party's gonna be one night and then you've got 2 whole days in London to do whatever you want. As long as it includes buying us souvenirs of course," he added.

Lucy grinned and Amy glared at him pretending to be annoyed, "Jason Castellan! How dare you?"

The three friends cracked up, laughing so hard that they didn't realize that Mr. Andrews, their homeroom teacher and perhaps the strictest teacher in the planet, was standing right next to them and that the bell had already rang. Their fellow classmates glanced at each other and one of the boys tossed an eraser at Jason's head, quickly making him glance up. Sobering up, he shook both girls with quite some urgency and they looked up as well.

"Would you like to share with the class, Mr. Castellan? Ms. Cahill? Or perhaps you would, Ms. Middleton?"

"We apologize, Sir," Amy muttered, "We just got a bit carried away, won't happen again."

"I know it won't and now if you'll all direct your attention to the board I have a few announcements for you."

Jason glanced at the girls and mimicked puking behind the teacher's back making his friend's grin.

**Hey guys! I've been getting a whole bunch of people telling em that this story is on the 39 Clues Message Board. That is correct, I wrote it for the MB and decided to post it here too, so don't worry I'm not stealing the story :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Last day of class or not, the teachers pushed them hard, obviously determined to raise grades, which did not bode well for the students.

"Well, it's official," Amy stated as they plopped down on the snow.

"What is?" Lucy asked.

"There's a whole lot of people who've failed or lowered their grades terribly with the finals.

"Why do I have the feeling that you're not including yourself in that bunch, are you?"

The trio looked up and smiled as Sarah and her brother Jonathan sat down beside them.

"Hey," Sarah said kissing her boyfriend.

Amy caught Jonathan's eye and grinned as her friend raised his eyes to the sky in exasperation.

"Earth to lovebirds, can you hear us?" Lucy cried out chuckling.

"Sorry," Jason muttered grinning, his arm around Sarah's waist.

"So, I take it you're not including yourself in that bunch?" Sarah asked Amy as she leaned against Jason.

"Nah, course not, it's me we're talking about," she answered confidently to great hoots of laughter.

"Before I forget, a little ninth grader asked me to give you this," Jonathan said handing her a folded piece of paper, "Said that a kid from our grade had asked him to give it to you but since he couldn't find you he asked us to give it to you."

Amy nodded and took the paper and scanned it before sighing with exasperation and crumpling in her hand.

"Evan?" Lucy asked.

She nodded and leaned back onto the snow closing her eyes. It'd been almost three months since she'd broken up with him but he still didn't give up, constantly sending her flowers and chocolates and little notes saying "I'm sorry" or "I love you please forgive me," she'd eventually had to block him on Facebook and add his email to the junk box on her email.

"Jerk," Sarah muttered, "What kind of guy cheats on his girlfriend and then comes back running begging for forgiveness?"

"Many," her brother pointed out.

"Whatever, he's not getting anything from me," Amy said standing up, "Come on, the bell's gonna ring and we're already on Andrew's black list for the day."

Grumbling the group got up and walked back towards the building. As they separated, Jason kissed Sarah and Amy looked away jealous. She wasn't jealous of Sarah for having Jason, she wasn't interested in being more than friends, he was the closest thing she had to a brother aside from her actual brother; she was jealous of the giddy happiness that was so clear on their faces and of the feeling of safety that came with being held so tightly, a feeling which she hadn't had for a very long time, long before she'd started dating Evans when…. Stop it, she told herself, let them be happy and forget about it, the past is the past.

"Jase! Hurry up we're gonna be late!" Peter Toll called from the other end of the corridor.

Pulling away from his girlfriend, Jason ran down the corridor and joined Peter as Sarah joined Amy and the girl's hurried into Chemistry.

Four and a half hours of torture later, students milled around saying goodbye to their friends and making plans for Christmas as they climbed onto school busses, their cars, friend's cars, Mom's car or the feared older sister's girly gar which made all guys cower in fear and disgust. Dan Cahill found himself quite lucky in that aspect, his sister's car was not girly but cool with leader seats and an awesome stereo system. He walked over to said car as the last of his friend's climbed onto the bus and leaned against a wall to wait for Amy. He closed his eyes and when he opened them found an older guy with blond hair and coke bottle glasses who looked kind of nervous at talking to him.

"Evan, what the hell do you want?" he asked viciously.

He hated Evan Tolliver, he could still hear his sister crying into her pillow as Nellie tried to calm her down; she had eventually, with the help of two ice cream cartons, Grace's special hot chocolate and a couple of chocolates that Sinead had sent from Paris to cheer her up a bit but Dan hadn't forgiven him.

"Listen, Dan I don't want to get into an argument or anything," he said raising his hands as if to show that he was harmless, "I just want to talk to Amy but it's been impossible and I just wanted to ask you if you could help me find a moment to talk to her and try to explain what…"

"Explain what? That you cheated on her and broke her heart? Yeesh Evan, get a clue she does not want to talk to you, she hates you! Piece of advice, stay away from her or you just might catch us in a bad mood and you'll find yourself with a broken arm. I'm serious, stay away from my sister."

Evan opened his mouth to speak but Dan's glare cut him short and he just walked off, hands in his pockets looking glum and miserable.

Amy bounced over cheerfully, "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," Dan said forcing a smile, "Let's go".

A few days later, Amy, Sarah and Lucy went Christmas shopping, diving in and out of shops as they chattered away and tried on a million things. Her friend's were determined to help her find the perfect dress for the party; regardless of how many times Amy had said that she'd wear something simple. As she tried on her twentieth dress she wished they had allowed the boys to join them; Jonathan and Jason had tried to tag along but as soon as the words girl time and dress shopping had emerged from Sarah's lips both of them had backtracked lighting fast and had said that they were actually quite busy and wouldn't be able to make it. She sighed and stood there staring at herself for a few moments until she heard Lucy call her.

"Amy! Get out here you lazy bones!"

"Lazy bones?" she asked stepping out of the changing room, "You can hardly call me that."

"Actually I can since you've spent the last 30 minutes hinting that we should forget shopping and get something to eat."

"I just don't like shopping. You two should seriously go shopping with my cousin, maybe you'd learn to never underestimate too much shopping."

"Enough," Sarah said stepping in, "Ok Ames, I'm not too happy with it and obviously neither are you so try on the last one and we can go to lunch."

"Thank you oh great lady, savior of the innocent and tortured women of the world."

"Shut up and get dressed!" Sarah cried out giggling.

Chuckling herself, Amy picked up the last dress and looked at it for a few seconds before trying it on. She didn't even stop to look at herself as she strode out, dying to finish already.

"Oh my gosh," Lucy murmured.

"Yep, this is definitely the one," Sarah added.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Take a look at yourself; a bit of makeup, shoes and a good hairdo and you'll be the princess of the ball."

"Wow, you're right, I love it! She quickly twisted around to get the price tag but Sarah slapped her hand.

"Amy Cahill, you arte stinking rich. Stop looking at the price tag of everything you buy; we're at the mall, a common ordinary mall not Newbury Street. So Cinderella, go get dressed and we'll pay for this beauty."

"Cinderella?"

"Yep, get dressed!"

"Yes ma'am!"


End file.
